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STATEWIDE Oregon education and job-training programs are getting money from the federal Department of Labor, including $1.6 million for the renewable wind energy program at Columbia Gorge Community College in Hood River County.

Awarded in March, the money will double the small program’s ability to accommodate the demands by Oregon’s burgeoning renewable energy industry for trained workers, says Dan Spatz, director of resource development at the college.

Also, Curry County in southern Oregon will receive about half of a $2.1 million grant says Susan Brown, the county’s economic development director. The money will be spent on hospitality job-training programs to serve the tourism industry at local and surrounding community colleges says Brown.

Curry County had a non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 8.6% in February. Statewide it was 6.4%, according to the state Labor Department.